Showbiz 411‘s Roger Friedman reported yesterday that Frank Marshall‘s BeeGee’s doc, How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? (HBO, 12.12), “omits” the big-screen debacle that was Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the 1978 musical fantasy that was produced by Robert Stigwood, directed by Michael Schultz and starred the Brothers Gibb.

Ignoring this tragedy in the BeeGees career is like omitting the Bay of Pigs episode in a doc about JFK’s presidency.

On the day it opened (7.21.78), the L.A. Herald Examiner ran a top-of-the-page headline that read “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Bomb.” Universal marketing executives hit the roof and, if I remember correctly, cancelled advertising with the paper for revenge.

I was at the all-media screening at the old Rivoli theatre (B’way at 49th). As costar Peter Frampton began to sing “The Long and Winding Road,” a guy in the first or second row yelled “Ecchh!…ecchh!” The film all but ruined Stigwood’s reputation and that of the Bee Gees, who starred along with Peter Frampton, Steve Martin, George Burns, et. al.

It’s dishonest and unprofessional to wave this episode away. Very few films have bombed as badly. You can’t “omit” this.

Paul Greengrass‘s News of the World is basically a 19th Century horseback relationship drama between a widowed Civil War veteran (Tom Hanks and a young German girl (Helena Zengel) who was taken from her parents and raised by Kiowas. Hanks’ Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, who earns survival money by reading newspaper stories to small communities, struggles to deliver the girl (whose German name is Johanna) to a bumpkin aunt and uncle in southern Texas, seemingly in the vicinity of San Antonio. Difficulties abound, ornery varmints threaten, two or three rainstorms descend, physical disasters (including a blinding dust storm) keep a comin’.

Please answer (a) yes, (b) no or (c) disagree with an explanation:

1. Paul Greengrass‘s News of the World is basically a good film — sturdy, reliable, authentic, true-hearted.

2. The adjectives or phrases that come to mind are “assured,” “atmospherically authentic”, “properly attuned to the 19th Century pace of life”, “True Grit-ish” and “somewhat predictable but not in a hugely problematic way.”

3. It’s a steady-groove, life-can-be-brutal, long-hard-journey thing. The performances, the screenplay (by Greengrass and Luke Davies), the cinematography and the trustworthy realism hold you.

4. Hanks’ Kidd character reminded you of Edmond O Brien’s Freeide Sykes in The Wild Bunch — yes, no, kind of, not really.

5. Hanks plays his usual patient, soft-spoken man of decency. Kidd is probably his best role and performance since…Cast Away?

6. News of the World is an entirely decent and respectable film. You can see where it’s heading from 100 miles away, but it’s the journey that counts.

A 12.10 Variety essay by Dune director Denis Villeneuve delivered a blistering response to Warner Bros.’ HBO Max all-streaming decision:

“I’ve learned…that Warner Bros. has decided to release Dune on HBO Max at the same time as our theatrical release, using prominent images from our movie to promote their streaming service. With this decision AT&T has hijacked one of the most respectable and important studios in film history.

“There is absolutely no love for cinema, nor for the audience here. It is all about the survival of a telecom mammoth, one that is currently bearing an astronomical debt of more than $150 billion. Therefore, even though Dune is about cinema and audiences, AT&T is about its own survival on Wall Street. With HBO Max’s launch a failure thus far, AT&T decided to sacrifice Warner Bros.’ entire 2021 slate in a desperate attempt to grab the audience’s attention.

“Warner Bros.’ sudden reversal from being a legacy home for filmmakers to the new era of complete disregard draws a clear line for me. Filmmaking is a collaboration, reliant on the mutual trust of team work. Warner Bros. has declared they are no longer on the same team.

“Streaming services are a positive and powerful addition to the movie and TV ecosystems. But I want the audience to understand that streaming alone can’t sustain the film industry as we knew it before COVID. Streaming can produce great content, but not movies of Dune’s scope and scale. Warner Bros.’ decision means Dune won’t have the chance to perform financially in order to be viable and piracy will ultimately triumph.

“Warner Bros. might just have killed the Dune franchise. This one is for the fans. AT&T’s John Stankey said that the streaming horse left the barn. In truth, the horse left the barn for the slaughterhouse.”

From “Ringing Your Curtain Down“, posted on 10.11.20: “The reviews are correct, the rumors are true: Michelle Pfeiffer has lucked into the best role of her life in Azazel Jacobs‘ French Exit (Sony Pictures Classics, 2.12.21), a sardonic “comedy” with a gently surreal quality around the edges.

“Which means that it’s not all that surreal, or at least not to me. A talking deceased husband (Tracy Letts) inhabiting the body of a cat or cryptically conversing with his widow and son during a seance…whatever. What French Exit is really about is dry gallows humor by way of a certain kind of “I won’t back down” resignation. And within that particular realm it’s very, very good.

To me, Real Time with Bill Maher is comfort therapy. As a fellow New Jerseyan (I was painfully raised in Westfield — Maher grew up in River Vale) I understand Maher’s Irish Catholic imprint and sardonic world view. And I’m often fortified by his “New Rules” sermons. And yet, between seasons, I have to do without the show for weeks at a time. Which is distressing. It’s not the laughter but the hometown comfort factor. Season 19 kicks off on 1.15.21.

As much as I respected and went with Steve McQueen‘s Lovers Rock (Amazon Prime, 11.20), it was obvious early on that it was basically a spirited mood piece — a 68-minute film about a house party in 1980s West London…love (mainly the current between Micheal Ward and Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn), lulling vibes, singing, throbbing raggae, spicy food, etc. No story, no narrative…an agreeable “hang”.

And then I saw McQueen’s Mangrove, a gripping, well-throttled political drama which echoes and parallels Aaron Sorkin‘s The Trial of the Chicago 7. I knew soon enough I was watching something utterly transporting and first-rate — a fact-based, racist-cops-vs.-neighborhood-activists drama set in late ’60s and early ’70s London, and about as fully satisfying as something like this (concluding with a courtroom drama) could be.

I decided the next day that Mangrove was my favorite 2020 film, even though Amazon has decided that it’s not an Oscar contender (although it should be).

And then I read the just-posted Sight & Sound roster of the 50 best films of 2020, and of course they’ve got Lovers Rock in the #1 slot and Mangrove at #13…naturally!

Garrett Bradley‘s Time (Amazon Prime, now streaming), an 81-minute doc about a wife fighting for the release of her incarcerated husband, serving a 60-year sentence for bank robbery, was ranked at #2. Kelly Reichardt‘s First Cow has the #3 position, Charlie Kaufman‘s I’m Thinking of Ending Things is #4, and Rose Glass‘s Saint Maud is ranked fifth.

You can always rely on the Sight & Sound fraternity to convey dweeb values.

Here’s the full 50.

News excerpt: “On its first high-altitude flight, Elon Musk‘s SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded the moment it hit the ground. Musk had said it was unlikely that Starship serial number 8 (SN8) would land safely — and the billionaire was quite correct.

The giant rocket took off from the firm’s Boca Chica, Texas testing facility at 5:45 pm ET, igniting its Raptor engines and soaring into the sky to successfully hit its goal of reaching an elevation of 7.8 miles (41,000 feet).”

And if Woody Allen‘s What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (’66) had a space-rocket sequence, it would’ve looked a lot like this Musk-supplied video.

With Rudy Giuliani flashing a thumbs-up after being released from a hospital following two days of rich-guy treatment for Covid-19, how much trouble could Ellen DeGeneres, also Covid-diagnosed, be in?

If she’s smart Ellen will shoot up with Regeneron, Remdesivir and all the other wealthy person nutrients and cocktails. Ellen’s show is on hiatus until January but everything is obviously fine.

Touch-and-go situations abound, I’m sure, but Herman Cain aside, Covid doesn’t seem to kill wealthy people. This much seems clear.

Steven Soderbergh‘s Let Them All Talk begins streaming today on HBO Max. In my 12.3 review, I called it “a smart, reasonably engrossing, better-than-mezzo-mezzo character study that largely takes place aboard the Queen Mary 2 during an Atlantic crossing.”

I explained that it’s “primarily about Alice, a moderately famous, sternly self-regarding novelist (Meryl Streep) and her somewhat brittle relationship with two old college friends, Susan and Roberta (Dianne Wiest, Candice Bergen), whom she’s invited along on a New York-to-Southhampton voyage, courtesy of her publisher.

Tagging along are Tyler (Lucas Hedges), Alice’s 20something nephew, and Karen (Gemma Chan), an anxious book editor whom Tyler takes an unfortunate shine to. Also aboard is a David Baldacci-like airport novelist (Dan Algrant) whose books Roberta and Susan adore, and who’s far more engaging and emotionally secure than Alice any day of the week.”

Bergen’s performance, I said, is “definitely a Best Supporting Actress nominee waiting to happen.” I’d really like to hear if there’s any agreement on this point.

The following story (dated 12.10) has been reported by Rich Kirby for the Wilton, Connecticut version of patch.com:

Police are seeking the public’s assistance in their search for Michael Tannheimer, age 41. Tannheimer is white, with brown eyes and hair, [standing] 5’10” and [weighing] 170 pounds. He was last seen in Danbury wearing a blue t-shirt and tan pants.”

In mid December? It’s currently 46 degrees in Danbury, but yesterday it was much colder with snow flurries here and there.